Latest version of ScummVM ported to AGA

[NovaCoder]

Looks like an interesting read

ScummVM news:

Currently working on a little v1.2.1 update which reduces the initial load times slightly and also uses the Amiga's built in Timer and the exec's memory copy routines (which should bring a speed benefit to anyone who patches CopyMem/CopyMemQuick).

[Xenon]

[DDNI]

You made the front page kid! Well done!!!

[NovaCoder]

Version 1.2.1.015 on it's way to AmiNet

Release notes:

1) Reduced startup time
2) Swapped to Amiga memory copy routines (make sure you patch!)

For example (let me know if you find something quicker!)

030 -> http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/CMQ030

040/060 -> http://www.heywheel.com/matthey/Amiga/CopyMem.lha
040/060 -> http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/NewCMQ060

Or just patch the whole exec -> http://uk.aminet.net/util/libs/execlibrary.readme

[ricky500]

Great work on this! It runs solid - I remember being frustrated with earlier ports AMIGA ports of SCUMM VM because they crashed all the time.

It's amazing to see games like the Talkie Fate of Atlantis and the DIG running on the AMIGA. :-)

The only problem I had was that the videos in the DIG were messed up - I'm guessing that this is something that can't be fixed.

[gibs]

Full Throttle on Amiga 1260 50Mhz : Some voices are missing while they are playing fine on the OSX 1.3 port of Scummvm.

[NovaCoder]

Hiya,

That's interesting, is that with the new version (eg v1.2.1.015)? Have you still got v1.2.1.012 installed, can you see if the voices are ok with that one for me?

What about speed, I expect v1.2.1.015 will be a lot faster than the old version (when patched of course!).

[gibs]

According to the "release notes.txt" I was using the .012 version.

Going to try with the .015 version.

015 : Full Throttle crash and return to the WB
I can play MK2 perfectly with Music
Day of Tentacle : I can get the music working but I don't have the voices.

As I switch between the A600 and A1200 I can't tell if it's faster I would say yes because it's the 1260...I can't tell.

[gibs]

Monkey Island II : [ Show youtube player ]

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by gibs

I can play MK2 perfectly with Music

Wow, you win a prize nobody else has managed to get MIDI music working so far

How did you do that??

As to your problems.....are you sure you're using the original sound files and not compressed sound files? None of my ports of ScummVM support compressed sound files (and never will).

[Phantom]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Looks like an interesting read

ScummVM news:

Currently working on a little v1.2.1 update which reduces the initial load times slightly and also uses the Amiga's built in Timer and the exec's memory copy routines (which should bring a speed benefit to anyone who patches CopyMem/CopyMemQuick).

ScummVM has already being reviewed last year in AF (OS4.x version). That ScummVM here probably is a review for the Classic Amigas.

But porting ScummVM to classic Amigas, that's really brilliant!

[gibs]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Wow, you win a prize nobody else has managed to get MIDI music working so far

How did you do that??

As to your problems.....are you sure you're using the original sound files and not compressed sound files? None of my ports of ScummVM support compressed sound files (and never will).

Well I guess I was tired and I was filming the OSX version

No seriously, I just have overrided the default audio and activated music with the adlib emulator plugin. I have also tried "Sam & Max" with success.

[pintcat]

Yeah indeed, adlib emulation works now flawless (it worked before too, but slowed the game down to uselessness). Works fine with DOTT and Sam & Max and it also seems to be slightly faster than pc speaker emulation at the same output rate. Now I gotta test some of these oversized games like Full Throttle (which used to be unplayable even without sound). And - as promised - ScummVM's loading time is much shorter now. A true win!
One small issue: If I use the override option to adjust audio settings (as gibs described) I get only music without speech and sfx. And apparently there's no way to turn it back on via the game specific config menu. Thus I always have to avoid overriding and only use the global settings. Is it intended to work this way?

[gibs]

@pintcat Full Throttle was runing smooth with the previous version, but doesn't seems to work with this one.

As you can hear in my video I have both samples & music (listen to carefully you can hear the fire on the beach)

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by pintcat

One small issue: If I use the override option to adjust audio settings (as gibs described) I get only music without speech and sfx. And apparently there's no way to turn it back on via the game specific config menu. Thus I always have to avoid overriding and only use the global settings. Is it intended to work this way?

I'm not sure, I always use the global settings as well, I'll have to look into the override setting to see how it's meant to work.

Glad MIDI emulation is now working correctly for you 060 users, I didn't actual mean to fix it though

[pintcat]

I came across something odd. I'm curious if someone else can confirm this...
I accidentally started ScummVM without a copy-mem patch and found that it runs with pretty much the same speed. Just to be sure I deactivated ALL patches I've installed, rebooted and retried ScummVM - same result. I always used the same setting with adlib emulation activated. Apparently the new copy memory routines doesn't improve this much.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by pintcat

I came across something odd. I'm curious if someone else can confirm this...
I accidentally started ScummVM without a copy-mem patch and found that it runs with pretty much the same speed. Just to be sure I deactivated ALL patches I've installed, rebooted and retried ScummVM - same result.

It's probably because the most of the speed limitations for an 060 are the AGA chipset and HD transfer rate, the patched memory routines certainly make a difference to the 030 version on my machine.

Have you tried Full Throttle with v1.2.1.015 + patched memory copy routines yet? Does it make any difference to the bike fight scene? How does yours run the intro? My 030 seems to have the power to run the intro at almost full speed but I think my hard drive transfer rate is too slow so I get pauses. My 56Mhz 030 really struggles on the first bike fight scene but I know that even the old PPC's version had trouble with the bike battles so I'm not surprised that the 68k versions are also struggling

Update: Just tried MIDI emulation playback on my 030 with both DOTT and Discworld and it works a lot better this time around. It's still not really playable (everything slows down too much) but at least it doesn't just hang anymore

[pintcat]

Tested Full Throttle finally... First of all: I cannot deactivate the sound. Music & sfx are always on and during the intro and action sequences I have even speech (maybe the video parts use one compact audio stream). Animations are always jumpy then. During the game everything runs fluid, though the sfx are out of sync. When it comes to the bike fight, the game becomes unplayable slow and often hangs or crashes, displaying this message:

pure virtual method called
terminate called without an active exception
Program aborted

After fine tuning the settings for the old ScummVM version I got similar results using the PC speaker emulation. The sfx fit even better. But during bike fight scene it tends to crash too.
Again, there's no visible improvement due to new copy-mem routines. Hopefully, I didn't do anything wrong with patching my system. According to Scout CopyMem & CopyMemQuick are running.

[NovaCoder]

This is what you should have installed on your 060

http://aminet.net/package/util/boot/NewCMQ060

[pintcat]

Yes, that's the one I use. I also tried the other copy-mem patch: http://www.heywheel.com/matthey/Amiga/CopyMem.lha, but it didn't made any difference. Does it matter at which point the patch is initialized? When I tried it the first time I simply started it from shell right after the system boot. Later, I placed it in the Startup-Sequence after the setpatch command.